A local college student has opened up to DTTN about her struggles with attending early-morning virtual lectures.
Ann O’Flann (19), a second year Commerce student at UCC, has a scheduled 9am start on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
“It’s inhumane what’s being expected of us,” said O’Flann. “I know we all have to make sacrifices during Covid, but they need to understand that I’m just not a morning person.
I have to get all the way out of bed, turn on my laptop and plug it in. All without having even a coffee or shower. Disgusting.”
O’Flann, who likes to stay up until 2 or 3am watching Netflix, creating content for her Insta account and playing drinking games with friends on Zoom, said that many students are similarly suffering.
“I mean, we keep getting told we need to talk about mental health. What about our mental health? No one should have to get out of bed before 11 in a pandemic.
The only small mercy is that we’re not camera enabled. If I had to do hair and make-up as well I don’t know how I’d manage.”
O’Flann has created a petition calling for UCC to ban all morning lectures, but so far no other students have mustered up the energy to sign.